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Practice Pointers – Charting Your Own Path
By Natasha Alladina • December 31, 2020 •Writers in Residence, Careers
My first post of 2020 was about avoiding a haphazard career. Kind of a strange blog post title and topic for someone who’s changed jobs and even careers a few times over… But to come full circle, there’s a difference between haphazard and intentional career moves. What may seem haphazard to others is far from that if your career decisions all align with what YOU want and need. The more you experiment and iterate, the better you get to know yourself, and the more intentionally you can chart your own career path. Take me, for instance. I started out in…
Practice Pointers – Assessing Your Career Progress
By Natasha Alladina • December 01, 2020 •Writers in Residence, Careers
We’re officially in the holiday season… which means peppermint hot chocolate, Hallmark movies, and oh wait, annual reviews. Sorry to ruin the festive mood, but annual reviews? They’re just as important and browsing all those Black Friday deals. (I know I’m not the only one.) Obviously, annual reviews matter because they factor into your potential bonus, pay raise, and overall standing wherever you work. But they also matter because they force you to take stock of your career progress over the past year – to assess what you’ve worked on, learned, and could use more experience in. That…
Practice Pointers - Preparing for the 2020-2021 OCI Season
By Natasha Alladina • October 31, 2020 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Choosing a Career and Landing a Job
It’s pretty safe to say that this year’s OCI process will look very, very different (OFF-campus interviewing, anyone?). But what won’t change is the need the thoroughly prepare so you can put your best foot (read: Zoom self) forward. So how do you do that? Check out my top interview and resume tips for law students, and feel free to ping me if you have any follow-up questions! Top 5 Law Student Resume Tips Stick to a page. Consider adding an Interests section so there’s an easy way for your interviewers to get to know and connect with you. And…
Practice Pointers - Knowing When to Consider a Lateral Move
By Natasha Alladina • September 27, 2020 •Writers in Residence, Careers
Most lawyers (indeed, most professionals) won’t stay at their first job forever. Kudos to those “lifers” who find their perfect fit from the get-go (or decide to stick it out at their first gig), but the rest of us will likely contemplate a lateral move at some point in our careers. And if you fall into the latter category, how do you know when to consider making a move? The answer, of course, will vary depending on the individual lawyer and situation. From personal experience and now, as a legal recruiter, I’ve found that the following are good reasons to…
Practice Pointers - Working with a Legal Recruiter
By Natasha Alladina • August 31, 2020 •Writers in Residence, Careers, Law School, Choosing a Career and Landing a Job
Inevitably, at some point in your legal career, you’ll be contacted by a recruiter. Maybe it’s a phone call. Maybe it’s an email or LinkedIn message. One way or another, you’ll hear from one. As a litigator turned recruiter, I’ve been on the receiving end of recruiter calls and now I’m the one reaching out to candidates. And I’ve learned that many young lawyers aren’t really sure how recruiting works, who’s legit, and whether chatting with a recruiter is worth their time. So let’s remove the proverbial veil and get acquainted with legal recruiting. A quick note to start –…
Practice Pointers - Up-leveling Your Interview Prep
By Natasha Alladina • July 31, 2020 •Writers in Residence, Careers
Know what used to give me more butterflies than an actually viable “we both swiped right” first date situation? Interviews. Although, to be fair, interview anticipation was more like having pesky moths or something more insidious eating away at my insides. And I know I can’t be the only one who’s gotten tingly hands and feet at the thought of an interview… So what’s changed? Well, for starters, I’ve done a ton of interviews (both public and private sector) since law school, both as an interviewee and interviewer. And more importantly, I’ve learned how to prepare effectively. So even though…
Practice Pointers - Managing Expectations
By Natasha Alladina • June 30, 2020 •Writers in Residence, Careers, Other Career Issues
Have you ever had that nightmare where you forgot about a deadline or had two things due at the same time and only managed to finish one? And then you woke up panicked, drenched in sweat, right before the climactic scene in which a partner hurls a series of expletives (and maybe even a stapler) at you? No? Not yet? Well, let’s be sure to keep it that way. One thing they don’t teach you in law school is how to manage expectations when you’re in the real world. That’s more of a “learn as you go and figure it…
Practice Pointers – Investing in Your Mental Health
By Natasha Alladina • May 31, 2020 •Writers in Residence, Law School, Other Law School Issues, Issues, Other Issues
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and I couldn’t let these 31 days go by without addressing mental health and the practice of law. So here I am anxiously asking myself what I want to say at 8:41 pm on Sunday, May 31. (Full credit goes to my generalized anxiety disorder for this latest installment of “Natasha psyched herself out and procrastinated yet again even though she knows she shouldn’t.”) It would be the understatement of the year to say that lawyers suffer from a mental health and substance abuse epidemic. ALM’s most recent Mental Health and Substance Abuse Survey…
FREE Virtual Bar Exam Summit - June 5-7, 2020
By Natasha Alladina • May 16, 2020 •Features, Bar Exam
Bar exam prep sucks. There’s nothing else to say about it. It just sucks. And now, given the pandemic, there are the added questions of when various state bar exams will happen, how bar exam prep timing will change, and oh yes, whether licensure delays will impact your job prospects. Awesome sauce. Well, I have some good news. A former Ms. JD Writer in Residence is on a mission to make bar prep more bearable and effective, especially in what is sure to go down in history as the strangest year ever to take a bar exam. Her name? Kerriann…